Tinywoods Preschool

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children are extremely happy and settled. On arrival, they eagerly get involved in a range of activities that excite and motivate them to learn more. They make exceptional progress in the language-rich, inspirational setting. Leaders place a high priority on children's language development as a fundamental tool that is at the centre of all their planning. They believe that the acquisition of language is vital and the key thread across all seven areas of learning. Staff are fully aware that effective language and literacy skills support children to access the whole curriculum.

Children follow their interests. They choose activities and resources that they enjoy, helping to trigger further exploration and learning. In addition, staff follow themes that are based on popular books and stories that capture children's imagination. Children take the lead in their play to 'have a go', interact and build on their strong desire to learn. For example, children confidently name colours, enjoy counting objects, enthusiastically chant the words and coordinate their actions as they 'go on a bear hunt'. All children, including those in receipt of funding and those with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND), make consistently high rates of progress in all areas of learning.

Routines are implemented consistently across the setting. This helps children learn rules and boundaries. Staff are impressively good role models. Children show high perseverance and patience, such as when waiting for their turn in a group activity. They smile with pride when they are praised by staff for their successful efforts. Special one-to-one time is used effectively to support those children who need additional support to regulate their emotions, with excellent results. Children possess extremely positive attitudes to learning and very high levels of curiosity and attention to detail.

What does the early years setting do well and what does it need to do better?

• Leaders have very high expectations and a deep respect for staff, who are empowered to take ownership of different aspects of care and education in the pre-school. In turn, the whole team has high expectations of children and works tirelessly to ensure that a purposeful, well-organised, ambitious curriculum supports children to make the best possible progress.
• The pre-school environments are imaginatively resourced, appealing and engaging. Staff provide an abundance of scope for children to experiment and become deeply engrossed in their play and learning. Staff use signs, prompts and picture cards to support the introduction of language and to scaffold understanding for those who cannot yet verbally communicate, as well as for those children who speak English as an additional language.
• Using their regular assessments and observations, staff identify what each child needs to know and understand next in their learning. Staff skilfully incorporate these next steps into the activities and experiences they provide. This helps to ensure that staff add suitable, targeted challenges in their interactions with children.
• The vision of leaders and managers is consistently shared with all staff through peer observations, staff meetings and supervision. This ensures that all staff understand that each child is unique and that the goal is to empower them to be confident, independent, happy individuals who are excited about their future.
• Staff are highly inclusive and provide excellent support for children with SEND. They collaborate closely with professionals to refer children to gain appropriate intervention. Staff quickly identify gaps in children's learning, input strategies and use funding to ensure they make progress.
• The highly effective programmes for literacy mean that children are learning the concepts and skills necessary to be confident readers and writers. Skilful delivery of the literacy programmes by the knowledgeable staff means that children are exceeding in their understanding of rhythm, rhyme, mark making and letter sounds. Children are swiftly developing literacy skills to support their future learning.
• Managers and staff have extremely high expectations to equip all children with the skills and knowledge they need to explore and understand the world around them. Children are exposed to a wealth of experiences and learn about other cultures and traditions. For example, they learn about Black History Month and listen to stories and the sounds of African drums. Staff find out about the cultures relevant to the children that attend and ensure their traditions are celebrated.
• Parents offer the highest praise for staff and managers. Staff share detailed information with parents about their children's learning and how to continue this at home, including through a digital platform. Parents talk positively about children's key-person relationships and communication with staff. They express extremely high levels of satisfaction with the care and education their children receive.
• Superb partnerships with the host school mean that children are extremely well prepared for the next stage in their learning. Staff have developed close working partnerships with other early years settings to share best practice and improve children's outcomes.